Chapter 24
W hy was that person speaking so loudly?
She frowned and tried to roll onto her side. Pain shot up her arm, stealing her breath. She whimpered.
“You just woke her up, you’re upsetting her,” Hayes said. “You need to leave.”
“We need to find out who attacked her,” another voice said. “Which means we need to speak to her.”
“She’s asleep. She just got out of surgery, you can wait.”
“Her doctor said she’s fine to be interviewed. Tell us when she wakes up.”
There was silence and then a low voice started swearing.
Hayes.
Opening her eyes, she stared up at him in worry.
Immediately, he wiped the anger off his face. “Baby, sorry we woke you.”
“That was the police?” she asked in a croaky voice.
“Yeah,” he replied as he picked up a glass of water from the bedside table. It had a straw in it which he held to her mouth. She latched on but it was an awkward angle.
Instead of raising the bed, he slipped his free hand under her head and gently lifted her.
Darn it.
She liked that. A lot. She liked him taking care of her like this.
Daddy will take care of you.
Had he really said that? Or had she dreamed it?
“I don’t want to talk to them,” she told him after he removed the straw from her mouth. He laid her back down just as carefully.
She wasn’t certain that anyone had ever touched her with such tenderness and if she wasn’t careful, it would make her cry.
He sat on the bed facing her and brushed her hair away. “Need to do something about your hair.”
Reaching up, she felt around. “Looks that bad, huh?”
Hayes grabbed hold of her hand, pulling it back down. “Stop that. It doesn’t look bad at all. It just keeps going in your face and annoying you.”
Devi froze. “You noticed that?”
“Yeah, baby. Of course I did.” He said that like it was a given. As though anyone would have noticed that.
She didn’t think that was the case, though.
“Unfortunately, I can try and keep the police away a bit longer but you will have to talk to them eventually.”
Devi bit her lip.
“Stop that,” he said firmly, reaching out to release her lip. “No hurting yourself.”
“I don’t know what to tell them.”
Hayes eyed her for a long moment. “You know who did this, don’t you?”
“I don’t know them. I know of them. And I know that they’re scary and I don’t want . . . I don’t want them to come back.”
He cupped the good side of her face with his warm, large hand. Devi was deliberately not thinking about the fact that part of her face was sliced up. That would take up too much mental capacity right now.
“No one is going to hurt you again. Understand me? No one.”
God, she wished she could believe him. She really, really wished that she had him to stand between her and the world.
That would never be the case, though.
And maybe it was an unfair desire. He’d get tired of doing that, right? No one wanted someone to be so dependent on them.
Devi didn’t really need that, anyway. She was fierce and strong and independent . . . and scared and tired.
Just for a while she could have it, though.
“They will come for me.”
He leaned closer. “They will not get to you because I will stop them.”
“But you can’t be here all the time,” she told him. “Once your job is over, then you’ll go home and I’ll be here with them.”
“Looks like my job here is probably over.”
It was?
“They . . . they caught the person threatening Mr. Stein?”
“No, but it seems Stein is going to jail. And Sondra isn’t interested in retaining our services. Donovan is grabbing all of our stuff and preparing to leave.”
“What do you mean? Why is Stein going to jail?”
This was the first piece of good news that she’d had all day.
She was happy at that news.
Was it because Stein had fucked up her brother’s case? Should he ask her if she’d written the notes?
That wasn’t really what was urgent right now, though. And he didn’t want to upset her any more than she was already.
How much to tell her about last night, though? Some of it he’d have to shield her from. He wasn’t going to implicate her in anything.
“Early this morning, Stein walked into the police station and confessed that he’d taken payments in order for your brother to lose his trial.”
“What?” she said. “He really did that? Why? Wait . . . you know about my brother?”
This part got a bit tricky.
“We were looking into Stein’s past cases to see if anyone held a grudge against him.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were looking into who was threatening him.” She looked kind of ill.
Out of guilt?
“Your brother’s case was one of the few that he lost.”
“He completely fucked it up,” she said bitterly.
“It now looks like that was deliberate.”
“But why confess that now? Because of those threats? Do you think the guilt got to him?” she asked.
“Stein doesn’t seem the type to let guilt get to him.”
Fuck. He wanted to tell her everything. But it was safer for her not to know. And he couldn’t tell her who had actually killed Marcus and set her brother up. Not without putting her in danger. Devi was a wildcard. She might decide to tell the cops or go after Freddy.
Hayes wasn’t happy about Lucan taking Freddy. He needed to pay for what he did. And he would. Hayes would see to that if he had to.
A mistrial would surely be declared and then a judge would have to decide if there needed to be a new trial. Which there probably would be without Freddy’s confession of guilt.
Yeah, something needed to be done about Freddy.
“I wonder if Freddy finally did something about him.”
“Freddy?” he asked. Did she know about Freddy’s part in all of this?
“Oh, sorry. He’s a friend of my brother’s. Rohan and Freddy are both Black Scorpions. They were also friends with Marcus, the guy that my brother was accused of murdering. I’ve never liked Freddy that much, but Rohan trusts him. Perhaps he leaned on Stein. And I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
“You can tell me anything. I’m not a cop. In fact, I want you to tell me everything.”
Hypocrite.
“I only want to do what’s best for you, understand? You come first,” he told her.
She blinked at him for a moment, looking shocked.
Had anyone ever told her that before?
“Do you think Rohan will get out?” Her face filled with hope.
Hayes wanted to give her some good news, something to hold onto. But he wasn’t sure he could.
“There will likely be a mistrial called and a judge will decide whether to hold a new one.”
Disappointment filled her face. “Oh, so he might not even get out and does that mean we need money for a new lawyer? I don’t think we can afford that. I had to sell his apartment and his car to afford Stein’s fees last time. And now that I can’t work . . .”
Panic filled her face. Shit. This wasn’t good for her. She shouldn’t be worrying about anything right now.
This was something small. Something he could easily take care of for her, take off her caseload.
“Do not worry about this. I will take care of it. Do you need me to take over again?”
She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, shaking her head.
Disappointment hit him. That wasn’t too much of a surprise. Hayes enjoyed being a Daddy Dom. And he’d missed that. Missed having someone to take care of and pamper.
Shit.
“How can I not worry?” she asked.
“I already told you. Because I will take care of it.”
Devi gave him a suspicious look. “What does that mean?”
“It means, trust me.”
“I don’t trust easily.”
“But you do trust me, don’t you, baby girl? You trust that I’ll look after you.”
“I’m just scared what happens after you’re gone,” Devi whispered.
Shit. Those words hit him hard. He wanted to tell her that he was going nowhere. But he had to leave eventually. Right?
“I’m not leaving while you need me.”
He was surprised when she just gave him a sad smile.
What was she thinking?
He’d noticed that she hadn’t smiled once since she’d woken up. But that was to be expected. Not to mention it was likely uncomfortable with the bandage on her face.
But Devi always radiated sunshine and happiness.
He hoped that came back soon.
“All right,” she said.
“Tell me what happened,” he said. “We don’t have to tell the cops everything, it doesn’t have to go out of this room. But I need to know and you need to tell someone.”
He could see the guilt inside her. Wanted to help ease it.
“Give it to me, baby girl, and let me decide what to do.”
He had no idea how much she needed to give him this.
It was eating her up inside.
And she did trust him not to tell anyone. She trusted him to take care of her physically.
Emotionally, she wasn’t so sure.
She was certain he was going to break her heart. But then, wouldn’t that be her own fault? For falling for a man who was in love with another woman.
Oh God, she’d done that, hadn’t she?
She’d fallen in love with a man who would never be hers. It wasn’t his fault, though. And while he was here, she might as well soak up his care and attention.
It wasn’t going to make anything hurt more once he left.
She would be in a huge amount of pain either way.
At least this way, she’d have experienced some care in her life. Some time with a man who treated her with kindness.
Maybe even a Daddy?
Who knew? Maybe now she’d be able to find a man one day. Perhaps this was a pivotal moment that would change her life.
Or leave her heartbroken and ensure that no other man added up.
Yeah, it could really go either way.
She thought through everything that had happened. “You promise it won’t leave this room?”
“I promise.”
“I think I heard you say something as I fell asleep last night,” she said to him. She had to get this out before she told him what happened. “I thought you called yourself Daddy.”
“You heard that?”
“I wasn’t meant to?”
“You gave control to me easily. Didn’t flinch when I talked about a safeword. And you asked for your toy squirrel. Unfortunately, the cops are at your trailer and won’t give us access so we haven’t been able to grab it yet.”
Oh, she wished she had Coco.
“So you are a Little?”